Panacea Biotec Ltd. (PBL), India's leading biopharmaceutical company and among the largest manufacturer of vaccines, has signed two long-term collaboration agreements with Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII), world's largest manufacturer of vaccines and SII's wholly owned subsidiary, Bilthovan Biologicals B.V. (BBIO).
Under the collaboration, SII is entitled to manufacture and sell fully liquid Whole cell Pertussis (wP) and Salk based Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) based Hexavalent vaccine (DTwP-HepB-Hib-IPV) developed and commercialized by PBL, a first-of-its-kind in this category.
SII will ensure supply of IPV bulk to PBL, an important constituent of the Hexavalent vaccine, from its wholly owned subsidiary BBIO Netherlands having technology for making the IPV, earlier possessed by only three other vaccine manufacturers in the world.
In next two years, both SII and PBL will work together to get this wP-IPV based Hexavalent vaccine introduced in the National Immunization Program of the Government of India and developing countries by working closely with key stakeholders including but not limited to national governments, WHO, GAVI, BMGF and other UN Agencies, etc.
Dr. Rajesh Jain, Joint Managing Director, PBL said that millions of children in developing countries with an annual birth cohort of approx. 121 million will get an easy access to a fully liquid Hexavalent vaccine containing six very important antigens to protect against six dreaded diseases i.e. Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type B & Polio.
Global demand of IPV/ IPV containing vaccines is estimated to rise significantly from ~100 million in the year 2020 till supply constraints remain, to 250-350 million doses every year starting 2022 depending upon a two or three dose schedule, as Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization in April 2017 has recommended at least 2 doses of IPV in the routine immunization schedule of the countries post OPV withdrawal.
Due to global supply constraint of IPV since 2015, only 52% of projected supply had been delivered to UN agencies. Hence, 18 countries could not introduce IPV in their immunization and 15 had interruptions out of 70 IPV eligible countries approved for GAVI support.
Mr. Adar C. Poonawalla, C.E.O. & Executive Director, SII, said, "It is an historic deal where in two major vaccine companies in India have come forward to join hands to address unmet needs of both private and public Market globally. With the convenience of 'six in one' it has potential of over 250 million doses in next 3-4 years with a market size of over $1.25 Billion annually."
Mr. R K Suri, Senior Advisor, who orchestrated the mega deal between two big vaccine players, said, "It marks beginning of a new era in vaccine landscape and heralds a new business model, 'Collaborate yet Compete'."